Apparatus for settling and drawing off liquids.



No. 791,500. PATENTED JUNE 6, 1905. L G. REILLY.

APPARATUS FOR SETTLING AND DRAWING OFF LIQUIDS.

APPLICATION FILED APR.13,1904.

ATTORNEY} UNITED STATES Patented June 6, 1905 PATENT ()FFICE' JOHN G.REILLY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters PatentNo. 791,500, dated. June 6,1905.

Application filed April 13, 1904. Serial No. 202,970.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, J GEN G. REILLY, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, residing at the city of New York, county of Kings, and State ofNew York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatusfor Settling and Drawing Olf Liquids, of which the following is aspecification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forminga part thereof.

My invention relates to apparatus for settling and drawing off liquids,and is particularly applicable to the drawing 01? of frothy liquids,such as new ale.

New ale when drawn directly from the cask runs from the faucet in theform of a thick foam with practically no solid liquid, and this thickfoam takes quite a while to settle. It is customary, therefore, to drawa quantity of this foam into a vessel and allow the same to settle, sothat when it is desired to serve the ale it may be poured carefully fromthe settling vessel. If the ale has stood too long a time in thesettling vessel, it will be flat when thus served and requires to befreshened up by the admission of some fresh ale directly from the cask.

There are many objections to the foregoing system so generally in use.In the first place the settling vessel employed is usually a copentailsconfusion in a busy bar-room or caf.

In my present invention I employ a closed settling vessel, which Iconnect directly to the ale-faucet or other liquid-delivery, and Iprovide the settling vessel with a discharge-pas sage having twoopenings or outlets, one at a relatively low level for the normal flowof the 'liquid, theother at a higher level constitutinga'r'i'overflow-outlet, and I further provide the settling vessel with aninlet located below the level of such overflow-outlet and provide anautomatic valve arranged to be operated by liquid flowing into thevessel, said valve ar-' ranged to close normally the lower or mainopening of said discharge-passage, but to open the same when liquidflows into the vessel. I further provide the said vessel with agasoutlet which is closedautomatically when liq. uid is flowing into thevessel, and sometimes I further provide the discharge-passage with atrap for catching any foam which may overflow into saiddischarge-passage.

I will now proceed to describe my invention. with reference to theaccompanying drawing,

showing a central vertical section of one form of apparatus embodying myinvention, and will then point out the novel features in claims.

The apparatus illustrated in the drawing comprises a closed vessel 1,having an inlet pipe 2 secured to the top thereof and descending-intothe vessel and a discharge pipe or passage 3 secured to the bottom ofthe vessel and ascending from said bottom, usually to a' point near thetop of the vessel. The upper end of this discharge pipe or passage isopen, forming an overflow-outlet. Near the bottom of the vessel saiddischarge-pipe has an opening 4:, constituting the maindischarge-opening, which opening connects said dischargepipe with avalve-chamber 5, within which is a valve 6, arranged to seat in thebottom of said valve-chamber, and thereby prevent es cape of liquidthrough opeiling 4:. An open ing 7 is provided for admitting liquid fromthe vessel 1 into valve-chamber 5.

Inlet-pipe 2 communicates with a chamber 8, containinga piston 9,connected to the valve 6, and in said chamber 8 is an opening 10,through which liquid flowing through pipe 2 may pass into the interiorof vessel 1. The

chamber 8 has at its top an opening 11 with afiaringdischarge l2terminating outside vessel 1, the portion of the chamber immediatelybeneath the opening 11 constituting a valveof the overflow-outlet ofpassage 3, which opening connects the air-space near the top of thevessel 1 with the interior of piston-chamber 8.

A partition 15 separates chambers 5 and 8. The stem 16, connectingpiston 9 and valve 6, passes through an orifice in this partition. Pipe2 is connected to a supply-pipe 17, provided with a cut-ofl cock 18.

The operation of this apparatus is as follows: When first filling thevessel 1 with ale, upon admitting ale through the pipe 2the vessel 1fills with foam, owing to the amount of gas carried by the ale and thenature of the liquid. The foam in entering the vessel 1 raises thepiston 9, closing the top outlet lland opening the bottom outlet 4:.Some of the entering liquid may therefore escape through port 4 and pipe3; but the ale enters the vessel 1, because of the gas-pressure behindit, much more rapidly than it can escape through opening 4, so that thevessel l'will nevertheless fill. The attendant may catch in a suitablereceptacle such ale as may run from the pipe 3 during the preliminaryfilling of the apparatus and may return it'to the vessel 1 by pouring itinto the funnelmouth 12 after admission through the pipe 2 has beenstopped by the closing of the cock. When the vessel 1 has filled withfoam to such an extent that the foam begins to enter the pipe 3 at thetop and escape through pipe 3 in considerable quantities, the attendantturns the supply-cock so as to cut off further admission of ale, and thevalve 6 and piston 9 descend, closing port i and opening escape-opening11 The foam in vessel 1 is then allowed to settle, air entering thevessel to supply the vacancy left by the settling of the foam throughopening 11 and through the pipe 3. After a time more ale is admitted inthe same manner and similarly allowed to settle, and this operation iscontinued until vessel 1 is filled with solid liquid to or nearly to thetop of escape-pipe 3. The apparatus is then charged for regularoperation. If now the cock connected to pipe 2 be opened to admit thegas-charged ale to vessel 1, the entering foam will raise the piston 9and valve 6, permitting the solid ale to flow from vessel 1 through pipe3, while the upper portion of said vessel above the solid liquid fillswith foam, and the gas escaping from the liquid will pass off throughpipe 3, mixing with the solid liquid discharged through port 4:, so asto impart added life to the liquid drawn off.

The vessel 1 being closed except for the opening through thedischarge-pipe and the opening 11, the liquid within it will beprotected from contamination.

It will ordinarily be necessary to return liquid from the pipe 3 intovessel 1 by pouring it into the funnel-mouth 12, as above described,only at rare intervals-as, for example, when starting up inthe morning.

In the drawing 1 have shown the escapepipe 3 as provided with a pocketor trap 1 1 to catch any liquid or foam which may trickle down theoverflow-pipe.

It is obvious that the invention herein described is susceptible of manyvariations and modifications and that the form, construction, andarrangement of the automatic valves and inlet and discharge pipes may bevaried without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention; butI do not limit myself to the particular details of combination,construction, and arrangement shown.

That I claim is 1. The combination with means for supplying ale orsimilar gas-charged liquid, of settling apparatus comprising a settlingvessel having an inlet-opening connected to said source of supply, anoutlet-opening, and automatic valve means normally closing saidoutlet-opening regardless of the level of liquid in the vessel, and,including means for opening the same during flow of liquid into saidvessel, said means operated by current action of flowing liquid to openthe valve.

2. The combination with means for supplying ale or similar gas-chargedliquid, of settling apparatus comprising a settling vessel having aninlet-opening connected to said source of supply, an outlet-opening, andautomatic valve means normally closing said opening regardless of thelevel of the liquid in the vessel, and comprising means for opening saidvalve, arranged to be operated by the current action of liquid flowinginto said vessel.

3. The combination with means for supplying ale or similar gas-chargedliquid, of settling apparatus comprising a settling vessel having anoutlet-opening, automatic valve means normally closing the same, and aninlet-passage connected to said source of supply and having an openingthrough which the liquid may flow into said vessel, said automatic valvemeans comprising an operating device located within saidadmission-passage and arranged to be operated by the current action ofliquid flowing thercthrough to open said valve, said means of greaterspecific gravity than the liquid, whereby the valve will be normallyclosed by gravity, regardless of the level of the liquid.

4:. The combination with means for supplying ale or similar gas-chargedliquid, of settling apparatus comprising a settling vessel having anoutlet-passage provided with main and overflow outlet-openings, thelatter located above the level of the former, and automatic valve meansnormally closing said main outlet-opening, but arranged to open the sameduring flow of liquid into said vessel.

5. The combination with means for supplying ale or similar gas-chargedliquid, of settling apparatus comprising a settling vessel having anoutlet-passage provided with main and overflow outlet-openings, thelatter located above the level of the former, and automatic valve meansnormally closing said main outlet opening and comprising means foropening said valve, arranged to be operated by the current of liquidflowing into said vessel.

6. The combination with means for supplying ale or similar gas-chargedliquid, of settling apparatus comprising a settling vessel having anoutlet-passage provided with main and overflow outlet-openings, thelatter located above the level of the former, automatic valve meansnormally closing said main outlet-opening, and an inlet-passageconnected to said source of supply and having an opening through whichthe liquid may flow into said vessel, said automatic valve meanscompris- 8. In settling apparatus, the combination with a settlingvessel and an outlet-passage therefor provided with main and overflowoutlet-openings, the latter at a higher level than the former, of avalve normally closing said main outlet-opening, an admission-passagecomprising a chamber having an opening through which liquid may flowinto said vessel, and a piston in said chamber connected to said valveand arranged to be operated to open the same by liquid flowing throughsaid chamher.

9. In settling apparatus, the combination with a settling vessel havingan outlet-opening, and an admission-passage, of a valve normally closingsaid outlet-opening, and a piston within said admission-passage,connected to said valve and arranged to be operated to open said valveby fluid flowing through said admission-passage.

10. In settling apparatus, the combination with a settling vessel, and achamber therein having at its lower end a valve-seat and outlet-opening,and at its upper end a pistonchamber, and having a partition separatingits upper and lower parts, of a Valve in the lower portion of saidchamber, a piston in the upper portion of said chamber, means connectingthe valve and piston passing through said chamber, and anadmission-passage connected to saidchamber between said piston andpartition.

11. In settling apparatus, the combination with a settling vessel havingoutlet-openings for liquid and gas and an inlet-opening, of valve meanscomprising operating means arranged to be operated by the flow of liquidinto said vessel, said valve means arranged to close the liquid-outletand open the gas-outlet, or vice versa.

12. In settling apparatus, the combination with a settling vessel havingliquid and gas outlets, of a valve-chamber connected to theliquid-outlet, another chamber connected to H. M. MARBLE, O. F.CARRINGTON.

